Death Dagger the Shadowed Rose
by Rose H. McKellen
Summary: Our Hero, Batman, is confronted by someone from his past. And soon he finds himself taking the girl in, after her Grandmother a old friend of Alfred goes missing in a strange turn of events, is the notorious gangster Thorne at the bottom of this mystery.
1. A Strange Night

-1Alright folks, you have to be patient with me. Im a big Batman fan, and some stuff might be flame material until the next few chapters when it all will make sense. And In the series there sometimes are flashbacks, well the is a sign of a flashback beginning or ending. This is still kinda a rough draft, but as I know, my wonderful friends want to read my latest project!

ENJOY

A large storm was crossing over Gotham, thunder fighting using its lightning as a weapon. Rain pouring down from the heavens. A perfect night for our hero, because it was a perfect night for crime. And our dark hero had found his prey. In a dark ally, barely lit by the striking lightning.

It would seem that a group of brutes had found their next victim, they were trying to rob a science lab and apparently take some sort of data from an old woman. The men were about to confront a woman leaving the building, no one was there to warn the woman. The brutes had gotten some sort of darts and gun from the lab, but why they were sticking around was a mystery. But Gotham's hero was watching from the shadows.

The old woman was walking out of the lab, completely oblivious as to what was waiting for her in the dark ally she was about to travel through. She was in complete shock when she saw 4 armed men waiting. Their pistols in hand, there was a moment of complete silence, until one very tall man walked from the four.

"We know you have it, give it to us now, and no one gets hurt." his venomous voice could barely be heard over the thunder.

"What?! I don't have anything! Do you want my purse?!"

The brute rushed forward and grabbed the woman but her collar, " Give us the antidote!"

"I-I Don't have it!" the old woman's voice was quivering with fear.

It was at this time Batman appeared from the shadows, with the lighting striking behind him, a sight no criminal would wish to see. He jumped up, and landed on two of the men. One had run back to the van they had parked a few feet away, But that van wasn't going anywhere, our hero had fixed that. Now his only target was the man who held the last gun.

With shaking hands he pointed the gun, "GET AWAY!" he screamed. By this time, the old woman had made a swift escape to only hide behind a dumpster.

"Why are you robbing this lab?" he asked slowly, advancing on the scared criminal before him.

"GET AWAY" the man repeated, he started shooting, and Batman dodged it all.

Before the man had a chance to reload his weapon, Batman had already knocked it out of his hands. The man hit the ground, moaning a bit. Batman turned to see what had become of the man who had ran to the car. But before he could make out what brute had done, Batman had been shot, but not with a bullet, a dart. Our hero stumble to the wall holding his head, he fell back hitting the dumpster. Poor Batman wasn't able to move his legs or arms, he could only watch as all the men were getting up, their attention fix on him. The men began to walk towards him, and Batman couldn't move. They were getting closer and closer, two had guns, one now held a piece of pipe, and the other was ready to kick the crap out of the Batman.

Lightning struck behind the men, was this going to be the end of Gotham's hero, the caped crime fighter?!

When the lightning struck again, there stood a cloaked figure standing with the wind blowing past them, blowing the cape up, revealing the body of a teenage girl wearing baggy black cargo jeans, figureless gloves, a black tank top, and army issued boots. Her hood was up, but one could see her blue eyes glaring at the opponents in front of her. Batman could only see her back.

Soon the action had started with a bang, shots were fired and the mysterious teenage had evaded all the bullets, that had gone flying past her. She jumped up kicking one of the gunmen in the face, sending him flying back into a wall and from that kick she landed in front of the man with the pipe, who swung, the girl ducked! The lightning stuck again and she was behind him, landing a swift blow to the back of his head. He fell to the ground unconscious.

Now the two remaining men both held guns. One man was about to fire when a dagger had been thrown. Catching his shirt against the wall, he tried pulling out the dagger, but it was no use. The other man fired, she tried to evade it but was tackled from behind, the man she had kicked in the face was up and about. She hadn't seen him, but Batman had!

He had no way of warning the poor girl. He couldn't move, It was beginning to get harder to breathe for our Hero. He could feel his muscles relaxing. Batman knew he wouldn't last long. He was trying to figure out anything he could do. But it was all hopeless. When he was about to give up hope he felt a needle pierce his skin. There was the lab worker and she was injecting Batman with something.

"In a few moments you will regain movement, you have to save my Rose. I trust you, Bruce" she whispered in his ear. Batman recognized that voice! It was Helen!

But now Batman was focusing back on the battle that was raging before him. The girl was holding her side, having beaten the man who had shot her. He was laying on the ground next to one of the other men. One had the dart gun in his hand, shooting the girl before she could dodge, but she didn't seem to worried about it. She ripped it out of her arm, throwing the dart to the ground.

Her voice rang out, "You think a little prick is gonna keep me from kicking your ass? You must not be to observant!" she wasn't phased by the chemical that should be coursing through her body.

The man with the gun rushed her, with his fists and she was fighting back, hitting him in the jaw. But soon she was out of her league when the two men that were left took her on in hand to hand combat. She was knocked to the ground coughing as one of the men kicked her in the ribs. Something snapped in the girl and before he could land another kick, she had jumped up throwing him into the wall, sending debris everywhere. The other man had run away.

The cloaked girl was holding her side, ready to run after the man, but fell to the ground, out cold. Bruce tried to move his hands again and he could. He got up slowly, feeling a bit dizzy. But he knew that the girl could be dieing, and he knew in a way, he owed his life to her. He walked to her, holding his head. Batman looked back, for the old woman, but when he did, there was no sign of her. Why would she say to save Rose, call him by his real name, and then walk off!?

He shook his head, feeling the headache leave him, and by this time he thought it was alright to run to the girl. And when he did, he saw the pool of blood. Her hood was still covering her face, and Batman knelt down, wishing to see the face of the girl.

When he took the hood off, he was shocked to see in the brief light a bolt of lightning gave him, a sight he would never wish for.


	2. The Strange Past

-1

Whee, now to start this chapter off with a flash back! I just found this in my computer, and I had been meaning to post it. Well as usual, I hate your flamers, I don't wanna hear it. And this is an odd story, but this gives insight to the real plot soon. Remember Thorne?

Bruce Wayne was woken by the sound of his butler Alfred walking into his room. He was tired after the previous night, capturing Penguin. And not to mention the pain he was in. Why the hell was Alfred in his room at this hour. He looked at the clock, it was just 1.

"Master Bruce?"

"What is it Alfred?" he said, now sitting up slowly.

The butler was looking at him, "How are you feeling?" he inquired.

"I'm fine, Now what is it?'

Alfred was delaying, but soon he spoke up, "You have some guest who are on their way." he was trying not to crack a bit of a smile.

Bruce looked at him blankly, reading something from his butler, "I have a feeling its someone your happy to see."

The butler nodded. And without anymore questions he left the room, letting Bruce get ready for his mystery guests. It was unlike Alfred to keep something from him, but he knew it must have been someone he knew that would play a harmless joke on him.

It was less then a hour before his guests would arrive, and to his surprise two farmiler faces walked into the room, in fact one ran into the room. A young girl jumped up around Bruce's neck, squealing!

"Brother Bruce! I missed you!" the young girl was squeezing the poor sore hero. He lowered her to her feet and she ran over to Alfred, but she was a bit more gentle with the butler, "Uncle Alfred!"

The old woman standing in the door way was smiling as she walked slowly to Bruce, giving him a gentle hug, "Bruce, my have you grown. No longer the boy I once knew," she was looking into his eyes, studying him, "You are now a man."

Bruce was smiling to, for this was a reunion between friends, "Helen, I haven't heard from you in years, and you think I've grown, look at Rosie, what happened to the pigtails!?" he was laughing.

The teenage girl walked up to him, "Are you trying to make fun of me? Least I don't party all night!"

"Now Rose, mind your manners" her grandmother Helen had spoken, Rose stepped back.

Helen walked over to Alfred and gave him a hug , "Its been to long old friend."

They walked into the den, Alfred offered Helen a chair, and Rose promptly sat down next to Bruce. They all sat together, talking about old times. Bruce would look over at Rose every once in a while, seeing the smiling girl. Rembering that she had a pain almost as great as his. This girl had lost it all, but never witnessed any of it, least he thought.

Bruce remembered when they had moved, it must have been about seven years ago. When they moved, they moved quickly without much word to anyone, but Alfred. Apparently Rose's mother had been hit by a car and killed. Her father had gone missing after dealing with Thorne, more then likely he had ended up at the bottom of the river. Rose, her brother and her grandmother had made a quick escape from Gotham.

Now that Bruce thought about it, he didn't see Jack. He brought it up, "Helen, where is Jack?"

She didn't speak for a moment thinking about what to say next, "That's why we are back in Gotham…I believe he's been getting into trouble, and he took our money and ran. I had a feeling he had gone to Gotham. So I managed to take a job in town at Sunset Labs. Where they are making new chemicals, that's all I can tell you."

Rose changed the subject quickly, "Brother Bruce, is there anything new in Gotham!? Do you know Batman!? Cause if you do, I would really like to meet him!"

"Yes, my dear Rose has been training…on offensive fighting styles, I'm waiting for this girl to realize she needs to learn some defense."

"Yeah, I remember you training when I was younger! I wanna be strong like you." Rose sounded like a small child. It was as if she was acting.

Alfred asked a quick question, "Have you found housing?"

"Yes, we are staying at a place on Grayford St." Helen answered smiling at Alfred.

Bruce and Alfred looked at her strangely, "You know the crime in that area?"

"Yes, I do know the crime, but its all that I can afford at the moment, and before you say anything Bruce, I don't want your money. The place we have is very close to my work."


	3. A Mask To Allways Be Worn

-1Wow, you can tell I wrote this a while ago. Oh well, enjoy!

It was one day after the incident and the girls blue eyes shot open. She quickly looked around the room, wondering where she was. Her eyes traced the room, seeing nice furniture, and light coming through a large window. Then it hit her, she wasn't in a hospital, though she was bandaged, and she wasn't at home. The only logical place would be Wayne Manor. A smile came across her lips at the realization. Her Grandmother must have told Bruce about her fear of hospitals!

Rose turned to look at the door and felt pain shoot through her body, it took a moment but then she remembered all the events that led up to this. Her heart raced, she had saved Batman! Perhaps he had seen her fight and would like to take up a partnership!? Her dreamy and impossible thoughts were interrupted by none other then Bruce Wayne.

The millionaire made a swift and calm entrance. He was tired and was still trying to think through the massive headache that now thumped in his head. Alfred had said that it would be best if Bruce was the one to break the news to the girl, but when his eyes met Rose's he felt a tremendous amount of guilt building in his stomach. Bruce knew that it wasn't his fault, that Helen ran on her own, but still, it wasn't the best news to tell a wounded teenager.

"Hi Brother Bruce…" Rose didn't know what to say, she had been shot, that would be very hard to explain, she went over it in her head.

Bruce took a seat on the bed, looking at her, "How are you feeling?" his mouth was dry.

"Ive been better…" the blue eyed girl was ashamed a bit, she thought her skills were to good to get shot!

He couldn't take it anymore, Bruce looked her straight in the eye, "Drop the charade, what the hell were you thinking!?"

"uhhh…"her eyes grew large, "I-I-I…"

"Just start from the beginning…" he didn't mean to scare her.

Then the cocky girl returned to herself, "Well I was fighting crime in the streets, when I went to see if Grandma had gotten off work, then there he was, Batman, he was under some toxin and surely would have died if I hadn't saved the day! I beat the crap out'a it had to have been 5 or 6 guys! They all circled around me, but I kicked ass…but when I had beat'n almost all of them, the one guy I had forgotten about must have shot me…I hope Batman is ok!" she looked down, "Grandmother was there, she could tell you what happened…"

Bruce let out a big sigh, this was hard news to break to her, and he wasn't sure how she would react. "Well about that…" he paused trying to configure the words he was to use.

"Grandmothers not hurt is she!?"

"No, not that I know of. Batman said that she just disappeared, ran off after giving him the antidote. I went to your apartment and nothing had been touched."

"Grandmother would not simply run off. Someone must have done something! We have to find her! Bruce call the police get everyone in the city searching!" tears came rushing out of the girls eyes.

He wasn't sure as to what to do again, but instinctively he reached out to hold her. Bruce wished that Alfred had told her instead of him. He was never good at relationships, the man was use to pushing people away. But he couldn't push the girl away, Rose was like family and most of all she was in need.

Bruce finally spoke again after rose sobbed a few times. " Rose, its very hard to find someone who doesn't want to be found. Helen left, I don't know where she could have gone to, but Batman is on the case."

Rosie wiped her eyes and looked at Bruce, her thick headedness bleeding through, "Then I shouldn't waste my worthless tears on such things."

"She'll be back, she wouldn't leave you alone for long."

There ensued another long silence, and this time Rose couldn't take it anymore, she looked up at Bruce and tried to smile, "I saw Batman! Bruce he looked some what like you, and somehow made me feel safe, even though he looks so wicked. Bruce I wish you had been there, I kicked some major ass! And you missed it. But if you had been there, I would have had to protect you and Batman."

"Would you now?" he couldn't help but smile, if only she knew. "Well, Rose you need your rest. Heal up and then we'll talk more."


End file.
